The In-between
by MBrabs1996
Summary: For the longest time he had nothing, but that all changed when he met Emily. Please R&R.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hey everyone! So this is my new story! It kind of takes place during civil war, it won't stick to the exact plot line so it'll be really different but I hope y'all like it!**

Bucky looked around as he entered the market, he had heard that plums were good for helping to improve your memory and he was going to try anything to get his memory back no matter what it took, even if it killed him.

Where are the damn plums? He thought as he walked through the busy market, not paying much attention to where he was going until he ran into someone, knocking her to the ground and causing her to drop her things.

"Oh I'm so sorry!" The woman says as she stood and went to pick up her things and Bucky knelt down to help.

"Oh no ma'am, it's all my fault for not looking where I was going," he says as he helped her pick up her things and looked up at her, her green eyes piercing his blue ones, "You're American," he says as he stood up straight again as she wiped her hands on her already dirty dress.

"Yeah and you are too," she says, "I'm Emily," she adds, brushing a strand of dark hair out of her face.

"I'm…James," he says, hesitant at first as he shook her hand, briefly glancing down at it and noticing all the various scarring on it.

"Well, James, you appear lost," she says as more of an observation.

"Yeah I'm actually looking for some plums," he says as he looked around uncomfortably, scanning the area as Emily looked at him, blinking rapidly.

"That's…oddly specific," she says as she turned and started to walk away, beckoning for him to follow her, "So James, where are you from?" Emily asks as she looked around.

"New York? It's kind of a blur," he says and Emily nodded, either she didn't notice his uncertainty or she didn't care, "what about you?" He asks.

"Connecticut, I came to Bucharest to get away from everything, I just wanted a fresh start," she shrugs as she stopped at the fruit stand, "well here we are, the plums. Now if you don't need anymore help I'll be on my way," she says, "it was nice meeting you, James, maybe I'll see you around." She adds before she turned to walk away, making Bucky smile for the first time since escaping HYDRA.

Bucky paid for his plums before returning to his small apartment consisting of a mattress and a small kitchen and collapsed on the mattress, drifting off to sleep with the hopes of seeing Emily again.

**A/N: well let me know what you think! Please no flames, I haven't written in like a year so let me know if you think I should continue!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hey guys! Heres chapter two and let me know what you think! Pretty please with a cherry on top?**

Everyday for the next week Bucky made it a point to stop by the market to see if he'd run into Emily again with no such luck. He often found himself hoping that she was okay since there seemed to be something about her that had drawn him to her but he couldn't quite figure out what. The assassin often found himself thinking about her even though he didn't mean to.

Bucky's head snapped up and to his right when he heard what sounded like fighting and he saw Emily and a man in a heated argument.

Unable to just stand there and watch, Bucky started to approach.

"You are not the boss of me, Mike! Leave me alone and don't come near me ever again!" She snapped, ripping her arm from the mans ironclad grip only for him to push her, making her fall to the ground.

"Hey!" Bucky found himself yelling before he could even stop himself, but he was not going to sit by and watch a young woman get pushed around and unable to defend herself.

"Get lost! This doesn't concern you," The man, Mike, spat out through gritted teeth as Emily stood up, only for him to kick her and push her back down to the ground.

"James, don't interfere," Emily grunts as she painfully sat up, only for Mike to kick her harder as he turned and glared daggers at her.

"Oh you know this guy? What did I tell you about talking to other men, huh!?" He snaps with venom in his tone as he leaned down and slapped her across the face, only for Bucky to grab his arms and turn him to pin him to the brick wall.

"She doesn't need permission from you to talk to others." He hisses before finally letting him go.

"Fine. You can have her," Mike grunts, looking at Emily, "Don't bother coming home, you can also take Sasha. I don't want her if she'll turn out just like her mother." He adds before turning to leave and Bucky turned to offer Emily a hand and help her up.

"Thank you," Emily says as she stood and brushed her hands off on her dress before she turned to start walking towards the market.

"No problem. Who was that?" He asks as he looked around to make sure Mike was gone.

"My husband...well soon-to-be ex husband now I guess. We moved here together seven years ago, right after we got married." She explains with a sigh.

"He doesn't seem very pleasant," He says.

"He's not," she starts, shaking her head, "he actually used to be very sweet when we first got married. Always bringing me gifts, telling me he loved me, that kind of stuff. Then I got pregnant with our daughter, Sasha, and he became verbally abusive, then once she was born it became physical. He hits me." She adds with a sigh.

"Why not leave before now?" He asks as they crossed the busy street and started their shopping.

"I thought that having two parents under the same roof together would be the best thing for Sasha and the abuse gets so bad that i'm scared to leave. He threatens me, tells me he'll take Sasha away and i'll never see her again." The brunette explains as she started shopping, "but it looks like now I don't have a choice but to leave and be a single mom," she adds as she paid for her groceries.

"Well I know i'm still very much a stranger so you probably don't want my advice, but in this case that would be the best choice. You don't want her growing up thinking that that's normal and that's how a man should treat her. Has he ever touched her?" He asks.

"Not really. Once she was watching t.v and I guess it was too loud and annoying Mike and shes seven so she doesn't know any better, but he picked up the remote and he threw it at her and it barely missed her head." Emily says, letting out a shaky breath.

"Well you're better off. Any man who treats his family like that isn't worth it." Bucky says.

"Well thank you," she starts with a sigh, "I should get back, figure out where me and Sasha will live." She adds as she started to walk away and Bucky decided that he was going to follow her without her knowledge.

He was going to help her no matter what.

**A/N: Well let me know what you guys think! I promise the story will pick up so please review and give me feedback, ideas, whatever it may be! Please? With a cherry on top?**


	3. Chapter 3

Bucky followed her to her small house on the outskirts of town where a little girl, no older than six or seven with silky, long dark hair and fair skin ran to greet her before they both went inside. It was getting dark at this point and Bucky needed to find a way to talk with her, looking around and making sure the coast was clear before he approached and went around to the back, trying to find a way inside or find some way to get a message to her. Sighing, he went over to the cellar doors, bending down to pull them open.

"What are you doing? Who are you?" A small voice asked from behind him, startling him as he turned to find the little girl from earlier, staring at him with curious green eyes and holding a stuffed bear to her chest.

"Oh you must be Sasha. I'm James, a friend of your moms, can you go get her for me?" He asks as he knelt down to her height and the girl, Sasha, looked at him with narrow eyes but walked around him to go inside and get Emily and Bucky stood up as she disappeared inside and Emily came out a moment later.

"What are you doing here? Mike will be home any minute and if he finds you here he'll kill me…literally!" She whispered harshly.

"That's why I'm here. I'm going to help you because I was in an impossible situation up until a couple years ago and no one helped me so I'm going to help you," he says

"How? I can't just leave." She says, crossing her arms as she looked at him.

"But you can. Wait until later tonight and wait until he's asleep and then pack a bag with only the essentials, take Sasha and meet me at the market, understand?" He asks and Emily nodded, not saying anything before Bucky turned and ran into the woods.

* * *

Later that night, Emily waited until her husband was in bed. Mike had apologized for the way that he treated her in the market but this was just the cycle of abuse and she was sick of it. Not even hesitating, she took out the divorce papers she kept hidden in a drawer full of Tupperware once she had gotten home and she just simply left them on the kitchen table with her signatures on them before going up the stairs and packing a bag with her things and some of Sasha's things before waking the little girl up and putting a finger to her lips, telling her to be quiet as she took her by the hand and brought her downstairs and through the kitchen to the back door.

Emily has just barely touched the door knob to leave when a voice stopped her.

"Going somewhere?"

Emily gulped and turned, coming face to face with Mike.

He was angry and something told her she wasn't going to get out of this unscathed.

A/N: let me know what you guys think! Please R&R!


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Hey guys! Here's the next chapter and let me know what you think!**

Emily gulped as she backed up to the door and Mike stepped even closer to her, wanting to be threatening.

"You were going to take Sasha and leave, weren't you?" He asks and Emily pushes Sasha behind her to protect her.

"No I wasn't even thinking of that. I was just going to take Sasha for a nice walk." She explains but Mike saw right through her lies and in one movement, grabbed Emily.

"You think you can just leave me without my permission!? No! You are my wife and you are never to leave this place without me!" He exclaims, raising his voice as he shook her violently, backhanding her across the face.

"Daddy, stop! Leave mama alone!" Sasha yells as Emily fell to the ground and Mike continued to hit her and started to choke her and Sasha went to try and pull her father off of Emily, only for Mike to violently shove her away, making her fall to the ground before he resumed choking his wife and Emily felt around the floor with her hands before she found a loose board from the floor and she ripped it up, hitting Mike square across the face.

Mike fell back, stunned and dazed, giving Emily enough time to get up and pick up Sasha, running out of the house, not looking back until they were far away and she felt comfortable enough to put Sasha down and walk the rest of the way to the market where Bucky was anxiously waiting and got up when he saw them coming, closing the distance between them.

"Are you okay? What happened?" He asks as he sees how bruised she was.

"I'll explain later, let's just get out of here." She says as she kept on walking and Bucky went to walk with them to lead them to his place.

They walked for what seemed like hours before they arrived at the building and Bucky led them up the stairs to his tiny apartment, opening the door and ushering them inside and sat Emily on a chair by the small kitchen table, grabbing a bag of ice and holding it to her bruised face.

"He caught us leaving the house and then he attacked me and started hitting me and choking me and I remembered one of our floorboards was loose so I grabbed it and hit him with it and then we ran." She explains, flinching as she felt the ice on her face, "I was going to leave at some point but I was tired of all the disrespect and physical and emotional abuse and it was hard to leave because he told me that no matter where I went, he would find me and then Sasha is involved." She says, starting to ramble slightly.

"Hey it's okay because you're out of there now. You deserve to be treated with respect and love and don't ever think otherwise and I won't let him get anywhere near you two ever again." Bucky says as he brushed a strand of her dark hair out of her eyes.

Emily just smiled faintly at him and for once she knew she'd be okay.

**A/N: Let me know what you guys think! Please review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Hey guys! Here's the next chapter so I hope you enjoy it! This story won't follow the events of civil war because I wasn't a fan of some of those things lol.**

The following weeks went by without incident for the most part. Emily and Sasha were still afraid of leaving the house without Bucky with them in case they ran into Mike but Bucky was teaching her some self defense moves in case they ran into him when he wasn't around.

Emily was home with Sasha one day while Bucky went to the market for some supplies for all of them. She hated being scared to leave the apartment, but she felt like she'd never be safe for as long as her husband was in the same country as them and she couldn't bring herself to send him the divorce papers.

Emily tensed up as she heard the door knob turn but she knew it wasn't Bucky since he had just left. Quietly, she got up and took Sasha over to the closet, hiding in it and hoping that whoever it was would go away as she held her daughter close to her. Trying not to shake and trying to stay calm for her sake.

She held her breath as the footsteps neared to the closet and stopped in front of it, trying her best not to make any sounds before she breathed a sigh of relief as the intruder walked away from the door.

"Is it safe now, mommy?" Sasha asked quietly and Emily put a hand over her mouth as the intruder turned around and went over to the closet again, slowly opening the door and Emily shrieked in surprise as she held the little girl closer.

"Are you two okay?" The voice asked in concern and Emily reluctantly looked up to see Captain America himself staring down at them.

"Captain America? What are you doing here?" She asks as he stepped to the side so she and Sasha could get out of the closet.

"I came to find a friend of mine and I got a tip that he was here." He says as she and Sasha stand up.

"Would this friend be James?" She asked curiously as she walked to the kitchen.

"Yeah, does he live here? If not, I'll leave so that you and your daughter can get back to your day." He says, feeling genuinely bad for frightening them.

"Oh yeah he does live here. He went to the market but you're welcome to stay and wait, Captain."

"Please, call me Steve." He says as he takes his mask off.

"Well I'm Emily and this is my daughter, Sasha." She introduces, putting a hand on her wide eyed daughter's shoulder, "sorry she's a huge fan." She chuckles and Steve smiled warmly at the girl.

"Well it's nice to meet you both. How long have you known Bucky?" Steve asks as he sits down.

"About a month. He helped me get away from my abusive husband and we've been here ever since."

Steve nodded as he looked around the tiny apartment before he heard the door knob jiggle and they turned to the door.

Bucky entered the apartment a moment later, stopping in his tracks when he saw Steve.

**A/N: Let me know what you guys think! Please review but no flames unless its constructive criticism!**


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